15 Best Things to Do in Esposende (Portugal)

On the coast in Portugal’s Norte Region, Esposende is a resort by the Cávado River Estuary. The coastline is blessed with a chain of Blue Flag beaches, all in the North Coast Natural Park, which rolls out for kilometres north and south of Esposende. You can learn to ride the tube-like Atlantic waves at a surf camp, or just lounge on the luxurious white sands and pootle around the dunes and riverbanks.

In the town there are a couple of engrossing museums and a lovely 17th-century church. While to the east the coastal plain is dominated by granite mountains, where religious sanctuaries and ancient villages like the Castro de São Lourenço rest amid coniferous forest.

Let’s explore the best things to do in Esposende:

1. Castro de São Lourenço

On a granite spur 200 metres above sea level is an Iron Age fortified village, which has given up artefacts as old as the 4th century BC. There’s an obvious Roman influence in some of the later buildings, and you can also see where the streets have been paved between the houses.

With the first metre of the village’s buildings still visible, you don’t need much imagination to picture how this place would have looked at the height of its powers.

On top of that historical interest the castro is a lofty place to gaze over the Atlantic, and down to Fão and the Cávado River.

4. Museu Municipal de Esposende

The town’s museum is in an eye-catching building from 1911. This used to be the Teatro-Club de Esposende and was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by the Miguel Ventura Terra who had lots of commissions in Portugal around the start of the 20th century.

The galleries recount Esposende’s past, from the Upper Palaeolithic to medieval times.

Naturally there are finds from the Castro de São Lourenço, like buckles, hairpins, coins, knifes, spearheads and glassware.

But there’s also material from the medieval cemetery in Fão, a Roman villa unearthed in Apúlia and three Megalithic dolmens situated in the municipality.

6. Watersports

The right and left beach breaks produce fun peaks and hollow waves that are around a metre high, which is fine for newcomers to the sport.

You also won’t have to wait your turn as the beaches are large and surfers usually flock to resorts south of Porto.

There are three surf camps in the town for those who want an intensive week-long course (see Kook Proof, Onda Magna and ElementFish). Kite-surfing is also on the menu, and the same surf camps also hire out stand-up paddleboards, which are a fun way to get around the calmer estuary waters.

7. Parque Natural do Litoral Norte

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Parque Natural Do Litoral Norte

One of the best things about being in the middle of a natural park is the choice of walks nearby.

12. Museu Marítimo de Esposende

Next door to the municipal pools at the entrance to the estuary is a maritime museum.

This only opened in 2012 at Esposende’s “Estação de Socorros a Náufragos”. Built in the early 1900s, it was a rescue station for ships in distress, so you can imagine the building was already drenched with seafaring heritage.

With models, photographs and equipment salvaged from ships, the museum reveals Esposende’s maritime activity, from fishing to shipbuilding to ocean rescue.

You can also peruse some artefacts from the many vessels that have gone down off the coast of Esposende, including the wreck of a caravel in 1548.

13. Bike Rides

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Esposende by Bike

If you hand over your ID at Esposende’s tourist office you can rent a bike for free.

This is the easiest way to get around the web of footbridges in the Parque Natural do Litoral Norte but is also ideal for seeing Esposende.

You could take a swift self–guided tour of the cute historical centre around the Igreja da Misericórdia.

There’s the town hall, streets lined with genteel granite-built townhouses and a pillory that was the symbol of the town’s autonomy and freedom of its citizens.

14. Day Trips

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Viana Do Castelo

Inside half an hour you can get to the cities of Viana do Castelo and Barcelos, and both are days out to keep in your plans.

Viana do Castelo is a refined old city of churches, squares, fountains and palaces emblazoned with their family coats of arms.

There’s so much architecture that the town has drawn up special trails for each style, from Renaissance to Art Deco.

Don’t leave without catching the funicular up to the Santa Luzia Sanctuary for an epic panorama of the coast and mountains.

Barcelo is a beautiful Minho Valley city that all of Portugal knows for the Rooster of Barcelos that has become a national symbol.

There’s fantastic ceramics museum in the town filling you in on the 17th-century legend behind this symbol.